Clint Stoerner, who quarterbacked the Arkansas Razorbacks from
1996-1999 and spent time as a Dallas Cowboys signal-caller, is passing
along some of his quarterbacking knowledge these days.

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He'll be joined by a handful of former college athletes at the
PerformanceMax camp on June 22-25 at Mighty Bluebird Field in west
Little Rock. His football camp will be geared toward skill players, but
he'll also have a specified training for linemen and an all-around
teaching camp for players as young as those entering third grade.

Stoerner has been teaching a July invitation-only camp in Warren
for the past few summers. This Little Rock endeavor will be open to all
corners over four days.

"We'll cover everything from the stance to starting the
play to running routes to throwing," he said. "The grip,
throwing motion, everything. It's not your normal camp because
there is no one-on-one, no 7-on-7. Everything is position specific.
We're not putting them in a position where they will bang
heads."

Stoerner likes the fact that everyone he's brought together to
teach at his camp has had to overcome some kind of obstacle to become a
top college player. Stoerner himself was considered too small but went
on to lead Arkansas to 17 wins over his junior and senior seasons. J.J.
Meadors, at 5-foot-5, was considered to short but went down in Hog
history making some of the program's biggest catches. Lance
Strothers was considered too undersized and too slow to be a college
receiver, yet excelled at Arkansas Tech.

"He was a guy who had to do everything perfect, to practice
every detail, to be a college player," Stoerner said.
"He's now a coach down in Lafayette, La., He's just an
unbelievable coach, from the mechanics to the attention to detail."

Stoerner joked that when he began holding a private camp for
Warren's Bo Hembree, the high school coach only let him come back a
second year if he brought back Strothers.

Other former players who will be helping at the camp are Robert
Thomas, who played for the Cowboys and at Henderson State, and former
Hog quarterback and receiver Robert Johnson.

Third through fifth graders will camp the first two days ($i00).
Sixth through eighth-graders will camp the third and fourth days (July
24-25, $150). High school age (grades 9-12, $150) camp all four days.
Weight-specific training ($100) will be offered to linemen for 90
minutes each morning. The older players can sign up for both the weight
training, led by Dustin Coon, and high school skills camp for $200, a
$50 discount.

For more information, visit www. performaxtraining.com or call
247-6460.

Good Timing

The camp coincides with an Arkansas Activities Association dead
period, allowing the players to work out during a week when they
can't train with their high school coaches.

The youngest players will learn the game, from correct tackling
form and team tackling to pursuit of the football to correct throwing,
catching and ball-carrying skills on offense.

"A lot of them at that age don't know what position
they'll eventually play, so we try to cover all the basics,"
Stoerner said. Position-specific work begins with grades 6-8, and
quarterbacks are drilled both with shotgun and regular snaps.

"I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel," he said.
"There are a lot of guys in the training world and camp world and
teaching different methods to be different, to be new. But my thinking
is, if it's not broken why fix it? You look back to the Joe
Montanas, Roger Stabauchs, Terry Bradshaws, they threw it the same way
... there is a reason Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the best two
quarterbacks in pro football and neither can break 5-flat in the 40.
They operate in the pocket better than anyone. We teach pocket presence.
And you can break down the film and see that all those quarterbacks have
very similar characteristics in the way they throw."

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